


Pestilence

by lilivi56



Series: Servant of Evil [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Bad Jokes, M/M, man idk what else to tag i'm not very creative at this stuff, uhhhh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:09:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23332159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilivi56/pseuds/lilivi56
Summary: Do you believe in black and white, too?
Relationships: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle
Series: Servant of Evil [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1676773
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	Pestilence

Do you think the antichrist knows he is evil? Do you think he understands the reasons heaven has shut its gates and turned its head from his suffering? Do you think the antichrist deserves a chance to be redeemed?

Watch the un-birthing until your eyes are hollowed and your souls remember that once upon a time, there was a bell. There was a bell and the glow of a cross highlighted the forms of two unborn. The children are aware. Are you? It rings; You ring, too.

A scholar and a king follow the same fatal steps. Watch one have his soul taken from him; watch as his skin is pulled apart and put back together. It's not quite right this time, says the constellation of gore in his future. It will never be quite right again. Watch one have his heart torn to shreds and his body pulled apart in perpetual anguish. It's his fault, says the horror he will become. It's his fault. 

They are children. They know not what they do; forgive them.

There’s no clear answer to the story you’re being told and I wish I could give you one.

I can only give you the story.  
____________________________________________________________

Birds are chirping outside the window, and a pink sky yawns open the way for dawn to slink in over the horizon, bringing the morning with it. 

"Rise and shine, your highness!" 

Tom grimaces and pulls himself out of the deep respite that comes with slumber, met with a pair of glimmering green eyes shining bright with disappointment.

"Why are you sleeping naked in the middle of winter, you fool; It's winter! You'll catch your death," Harry frets as he gets his day-wear prepared. Distantly, Tom thinks he sounds like how he'd imagine a good mother would act like.

"Maybe I sleep naked because I know you're going to be the one to wake me up." Tom yawns, acknowledging what he just said was more than a little straightforward and being too tired to really care. 

His response is the sound of Harry snorting and calling him a clod under his breath. 

Tom stretches his way into the waking world, mildly annoyed at his luke-warm response to an obviously flirtatious comment, but then Harry turns around and his brain shoots a blank. Harry is beautiful. It doesn't feel like a word worthy of the way his chest constricts when he thinks about telling him the way he feels, but it's the only word he can think of. Long, thick eyelashes and shining, expressive eyes. A small, barely noticeable spattering of freckles on his ivory skin. Unruly black hair that ties neatly behind his head in a small ponytail. 

He often fantasizes about a time when maybe he wasn't a king, and maybe Harry wasn't his servant, and they weren't in the middle of a war. He would run his fingers through that ebony hair and find all the freckles he can't see and all of a sudden he's reminded of why he doesn't mind simply pining.

This is fine, even though nothing is fine. He stands, and Harry practically throws his clothes at him before turning furiously red and spinning back around in place.

That never gets old, really. 

While he's changing, Harry rattles off the things he needs to do today and Tom's tuning it out because he can probably guess what most of his schedule will consist of. Ignore another peace treaty, declare war on someone who pisses him off by tightening their border defenses, go to a war council and tell everyone off for being pussies, and sit on his throne listening to people yell at him for the rest of the afternoon until he looses his cool and goes for snacks with Harry.

Sitting on a throne is really fucking tiring and no one seems to really get that. It's boring and people seem to think it a job for fat old men with nothing to do but stuff their faces on the peoples' money and slave labor. But Tom is a different king than many people would expect. He's... ambitious to say the least. Unafraid of making sacrifices to benefit the goals he has in mind. Many of the rulers before him were lazy and content with what little they had, but not Tom. There are many areas in life where he'll never be satisfied.

The day passed by just about as boring as Harry had predicted it would. Tom met with the princes of dragon valley, who were throwing quite a tantrum at Tom's boundary patrols. A few vague threats including the "unleashing of the dragons" ticked him off enough that he decided to properly wage war later on this evening when he was feeling in a better way. He heard Harry sigh almost imperceptibly behind him. 

Only years of practicing his resting bitch face kept him from snorting out a laugh.  
____________________________________________________________

Do you think the antichrist knows how to feel something other than unholy? Do you think he pays mind to the fate waiting for him at the end of his path? 

There is an answer in the ocean, and drowning is not it. There is more to it than just absolutes. 

In the distance, a church-bell rings.

**Author's Note:**

> I absolutely am writing this ONLY to make the dragon valley joke. thanks for coming to this elaborate display of word-play prowess


End file.
